engel and others, the rebels in the field are not taking it very seriously, because they don't think that there is really a military option. what would be the military option if there were any use of chemical weapons by the assad regime? >> well, you know, it's not a situation -- i've been an expert on chemical warfare for 25 years. they don't work very well at all against well trained, well equipped military forces, such as our own. having said that, if these weapons were used against syrian civilian populations to include the rebels, it could be devastating. the vx nerve agent are enormously lethal and almost impossible to deal with it if you don't have the technology both protective gear as well as anecdotes if you are exposed. you know, i think assad is about to go down catastrophically here in the coming year. he has -- the army is going to turn on him. it will be tempting for him -- he has already murdered 40,000 people -- to use these chemical weapons during the final days. >> is there anything that the united states can do to carry out the president's threat to -- that there